On Saturday morning, around 50 Providence community members and organizers gathered at the Providence Pedestrian Bridge to advocate for a rent stabilization ordinance that would enforce a 4% annual cap on rent increases.
The ordinance, announced in January by City Council President Rachel Miller (Ward-13) and President Pro Tempore Juan Pichardo (Ward-9), was approved by the City Council in a 9-6 vote on Thursday. But Providence Mayor Brett Smiley has promised to veto the ordinance, and at Thursday’s vote, the ordinance fell just one vote short of the supermajority needed to override his veto.
According to Siraj Sindhu — executive director of Reclaim Rhode Island, the housing justice group that organized the rally — planning for Saturday’s event began ahead of last week’s vote. “We wanted to make sure that we were ready to put some pressure on city councilors who did not vote in support of the ordinance,” Sindhu told The Herald.
“Say it loud and say it clear, rent should be affordable here!” the community members shouted at the rally.
The rally specifically aimed to sway Councilman John Goncalves (Ward-1), who represents the area where the demonstration was held. Goncalves “has demonstrated that he’s on the fence” about rent stabilization, said Callie MacDonald, volunteer and organizing director at Reclaim RI.
“The immediate goal of this rally is just to let him know that the people of his district, his ward, want this,” she added.
State Rep. David Morales MPA’19 (D-Mount Pleasant, Valley, Elmhurst), who is also a mayoral candidate, echoed this goal in his address, noting that the crowd was gathered to “put pressure on Councilman John Goncalves to stand for the working people in his community and vote yes on rent stabilization.” If Goncalves votes yes, he will be the tenth vote needed to override Smiley’s veto.
“There are legitimate concerns about this ordinance which should be discussed,” Goncalves wrote in an email to The Herald. The councilman added that in addition to the other five city council members who voted against the ordinance, executives at multiple Rhode Island nonprofits have also expressed their own concerns about the ordinance.
“There appears to be little interest among some members of the council in pursuing a reasonable, objective, third-party independent study,” he added.
Over the past few months, committee hearings have been held to receive public input on the rent stabilization ordinance. In February, the first public hearing on the ordinance drew over five hours of testimony.
“From what we saw in the committee hearings, it was clear that public support to pass rent stabilization is there,” Morales told The Herald.
Morales referenced a recent poll conducted by Data for Progress, which found that 74% of Providence Democratic voters support the capping annual rent increases at 4%.
In his speech to the crowd, Morales said that rent in Providence has increased by 40% since 2020.
“What we need is action,” Morales said, adding that Smiley has expressed widespread opposition to rent stabilization.
“While Mayor Smiley and the Providence City Council have a shared goal of making housing more affordable, rent control does not actually lower rents,” spokesperson for the City of Providence Josh Estrella wrote in an email to The Herald. “Mayor Smiley remains concerned that this policy will worsen the housing affordability crisis, not relieve it.”
Smiley recently announced the RENT Fund, a proposed ordinance that would provide emergency financial relief to Providence renters in need. But for some, including Grace Harvey, an organizer with Reclaim RI, rent stabilization is a necessity.
“Rent stabilization is just the beginning in protecting our community and neighbors from being priced out of Providence,” Harvey said at the rally. “We don’t have time for more independent studies to be conducted. We are seeing rents go up all around us now, in real time.”
Chris Ellis, who came to the rally with fellow Providence resident Yen Chow, said that the two of them had previously lived in Boston but were “priced out of Boston pretty quickly.” As a result, the two moved to Providence, which they hoped would be less expensive. “But without rent stabilization, we’re not going to be able to stay here for much longer,” Ellis said.
“I have sat with people who have to decide between paying rent and buying food, between paying rent and filling a prescription,” said Kavita Doobay ’27, leadership and outreach coordinator for Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, a student housing advocacy group at Brown. “We cannot keep telling people to work harder, budget better, try harder when the math simply does not work,” she said to Saturday’s crowd.
During the rally, Sindhu said that “wherever it’s been implemented, rent stabilization consistently does exactly what it is intended to do.” In cities like Los Angeles and New York City, rent stabilization policies yielded thousands of dollars for tenants, he added.
“We are so close,” said Providence resident Anna Kastner, who is involved with Reclaim RI, in an interview with The Herald after the rally. “Rent stabilization is overwhelmingly popular among the voters, a majority of city councilors have voted to support rent stabilization and now we just need one more vote to override the mayor.”
“Our city is at a really pivotal moment where we have the power to keep people in their homes (and) keep Providence affordable,” she said.
Even if rent stabilization passes, it “is not a silver bullet policy,” said Izzy Irizarry, a Providence resident who is involved with the rent stabilization movement. Providence needs to have “more building of affordable housing” and stronger permanent supportive housing, she said. But if high unstabilized rents drive people out of the city, “we’re not going to have anybody remaining to fight for,” she added.
Pavani Durbhakula is a senior staff writer and photographer. She is a first-year from DC and plans to study IAPA and Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, and searching for new coffee shops.
